George Bush and his bank bailout

Are the President and the Treasury Secretary on the same page?

Published October 15, 2008 7:23PM (EDT)

During Hank Paulson's meeting with the nine bank CEOs on Monday, the Treasury Secretary told the assembled moguls that they must agree to the government equity injection because, according to one witness, "It was for their own good and the good of the country."

Did George Bush get the memo? Here is the President in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Wednesday afternoon, speaking with local business leaders.

I, frankly, don't want the government, you know, being involved with businesses -- owning businesses.

I don't think it's good for the country. It was necessary that the stock be purchased to help us through this financial crisis, but in the long run, it's not good for the country.

In the long run, as the back-in-fashion John Maynard Keynes so famously said, we are all dead. The short run's all we got, George. Suck it up!


By Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21.

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Bank Bailouts George W. Bush Globalization How The World Works Wall Street